Africa hosts thirty-three of the forty-eight least-developed countries in the world. Half a billion of its people live in abject poverty. The continent houses the most illiterate, most diseased or disease-prone population, and the most socioeconomically and politically unstable situations on earth. Why? Through research, the book explores the development challenges afflicting the continent, leading to Africa’s depressing socioeconomic and political performance in the world. It seeks to answer six major questions about the continent: Why has Africa failed to develop despite its vast natural resources? Why does it suffer social and political instabilities, often resulting in massive deaths, population displacements, surging poverty, disease, hunger, and starvation? Why does Africa suffer chronic dictatorships? Why is the continent increasingly afflicted by financial and political corruption? What do these situations signify for the continent and what should be done to address the situations? For scholars of African studies and development workers on the continent, this is a must-read. The book analyzes human rights and how this affects human growth and development in general, but particularly it seeks to appreciate how human rights and development have interacted to affect human development on the African continent. It approaches human rights from three major perspectives: the concept of human rights; the significance of human rights; and the contribution of human rights to humanity.